Avoid nights, weekends and holidays: Face it folks, doctors take time off, too, and you’ll be seen more quickly if you show up at 10 a.m. on a weekday rather than 10 p.m. on Saturday night — after there’s been a series of car wrecks. “Even if it happens to be less busy on a night or weekend, the staffing is lower,” the ER doc in the northeast says. “There may only be five people ahead of you, but it will take a while to get seen.” Holidays are also a bad time to go, as is the day right after, as hospital staff may extend their vacations. True emergencies, of course, give little advance warning. But if you have an inkling your bandaged finger, say, may need stitches, best head to the ER as soon as possible, rather than waiting until after work when you’ll have plenty of company.

Unfortunately, an emergency room won’t help — indeed, the closest E.R. has told him not to come back, he says.

Without insurance, John has been unable to get surgery or even help managing the pain. When he collapses or suffers particularly excruciating headaches, Esther rushes him to the emergency room of one hospital or another, but an E.R. can’t do much for him. One hospital has told them not to come back unless he gets insurance, they say.